I remember years ago when I knew I wanted to work for myself and start my own business. I kept a tiny little notebook around to jot down ideas, names, roadmaps, checklists, etc. that would help me build my brand. Of course now if I were to do that, my phone would have it all - checklists, saved articles and emails, popular marketers to follow, etc. But knowing who to listen to and what advice to follow through on can feel overwhelming at any stage of your business. Especially when so many of the blogs out there are hyper focused on logos, colors, fonts, and slogans. Building a brand is a lot more than those components. While important, those creative aspects are not how to build a brand. They are design elements.

Maybe you’ve already built your cannabis brand and you’re reading this because you are feeling a little overwhelmed. Or maybe imposter syndrome is rearing its ugly head into your mind. Or maybe you’re beginning to brainstorm your new business and you don’t know exactly where to begin. This article can help you make sure you have all your boxes checked off, get you started or help you review what you’ve already done. No tiny notebook required!

Identify Your Target Audience

You may or may not have realized by now that building a brand is more than just a logo or a slogan. It’s a feeling. Brands offer a feeling that their target audience desires. For example, Coca-Cola offers the feeling of love and belonging; often depicted with friends or families in their advertisements. Learning who your target audience is (or will be) is a crucial first step to building your cannabis brand. Once you know who they are, whether young or old, recreational user or medicinal user, economic status, educational background, etc., you can then learn what they desire and the desired feeling you want your brand to be known for. In the cannabis industry, target audiences can be a bit murkier and more complicated than say an alcohol brand or even a tobacco brand. Don’t be afraid to get super granular with your research on this part of building your brand. The more you can grind down the better off you will be for anticipating the needs and wants of your target audience. And more importantly, how to speak to them and where.

Learn From Your Competitors

This goes without saying that learning who your competitors are and the ways in which they market to your shared target market is imperative to building your brand. But one area you may not have considered is when you find too many similarities between yourself and your competitors. Before you became a registered business, you did a little preliminary research to determine if you could name your cannabis brand the name you hoped for. But what if there is already a business with an extremely similar name? How can you protect your brand from hitting hot water legally speaking? Doing your due diligence with a legal professional such as a business attorney or copyright attorney would be extremely helpful on your brand building journey. More on this topic in a later blog!

Define Your Purpose

Of course your cannabis brand is out there to help your ideal customer. But outside of that, take into consideration the following questions that will help you stand out from the crowd.

• What motivated you to start your business?

• Why does the company exist?

• How do you contribute to the world or your local community?

• What is the story behind your business? And how can you help your customers see it?

• What are you passionate about?

• What problems are you solving?

These questions help define who you are, what you do, why you do it, how you do it, and will help build on your future goals and brand strategy.

Those three pillars - identifying your target audience, learning from your competitors and defining your purpose - are a crucial part to building your brand. Each of these can help you develop a strategy behind how to effectively market your brand, help guide your business goals and how to achieve them, and bring value to your purpose and actions. In an already complicated industry, it can feel overwhelming to develop and build a cannabis brand from scratch. But these basics can help you get on track for success. Since we’re no longer carrying around tiny notebooks to jot down everything we need in life, why not save this blog for later? Follow up and let us know if this helped!